"...stephen harpers plan is ridiculous, 40 years without results, and death to Kyoto!?!?!?! OMGWTF im ready to like go to Ottawa myself an take him down..."
You're in charge of security for the Prime Minister of Canada during the current election campaign. You read this comment on a Facebook message. What do you do?
Maybe 3 months ago, before Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at a political rally by a schizophrenic gunman, you would see the "lol" at the end of the comment and the date (2006) and put it in the crank file.
That was then.
Now, you dig deeper into the writer's activities since he wrote that comment. You know his name, Izzy Hirji.
March, 2008. Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigns in Guelph during the last election. About 50 protesters show up. They're mainly opposed to the mission in Afghanistan, although some shout slogans attacking Harper for his failure to adopt the Kyoto Protocol targets.
Protestors block the street as Harper supporters arrive at a rally. Two are discovered on the roof of a building and escorted down. Izzy Hirji gets his name in the local newspaper as one of those protesting the Prime Minister.
Aug. 30, 2008. Blair Wilson, Independent MP for West Vancouver, announces he will be joining the first Green Party as their first member of Parliament.
Izzy Hirji on Facebook
I'm SOOO excited!!! What happens now? Does a re-election have to happen...or is this just in case a general election is called? August 31, 2008 at 6:39am
"Greetings to all our supporters!
We have an amazing announcement!
Greens have changed the political landscape in Canada forever…"
Mike Nagy, the Green Party candidate in Guelph, announces Wilson and Green leader Elizabeth Maty will be at a rally in Guelph at 4:30 p.m. " Come out and support our new Member of Parliament!!!"
Izzy Hirji responds:
AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING! Unfortunately I'm stuck at the university during that time but if i get ANY chance I'm coming down to the office!
November, 2009. World leaders prepare to gather in Copenhagen to work out a treaty to follow up on the Kyoto Accord in fighting global warming. A Guelph group calling itself the C2C Strip Mob uses Facebook to organize a publicity stunt to protest the death of a private members bill, Bill C-311, the Climate Accountability Act.
C2C Strip Mob
Partager · Évènement public
Heure vendredi 13 novembre 2009 · 12:30 - 13:05
Lieu Science Atrium
Créé par : Guelph Countdown to Copenhagen
En savoir plus 1) Meet at that underpass area between MacNaughton and Zavitz at 12:30pm
2) We'll deliver instructions quickly
3) We'll inconspicuously filter into the Atrium and settle ourselves. You can do homework until the time comes.
4) At 1pm, it's showtime
Partager · Évènement public
Heure vendredi 13 novembre 2009 · 12:30 - 13:05
Lieu Science Atrium
Créé par : Guelph Countdown to Copenhagen
En savoir plus 1) Meet at that underpass area between MacNaughton and Zavitz at 12:30pm
2) We'll deliver instructions quickly
3) We'll inconspicuously filter into the Atrium and settle ourselves. You can do homework until the time comes.
4) At 1pm, it's showtime
We'll be doing an extremely easy and short dance to Daft Punk's 'One More Time,' and then stripping down to our bathing suits/underwear and performing the "Ooo, it's hot in here" cheer.
After about 30 seconds of this, we'll be walking around collecting signatures for the KYOTOplus petition.
So...even though this event location is the Atrium, remember you are meeting at that underpass. Also, even though it says 12:30-1:05, the strip party is only happening from1-1:05pm.
*Make sure you wear strip-easy clothing or come beach-clad.
Savvy?
Izzy Harji sends his regrets.
"HAHA amazing!! WISH I could partake but unfortunately I have class."
April, 2011. The students responsible for the Strip Mob organize another stunt, ostensibly to encourage students to vote in this federal election. They call it a Vote Mob. They tell reporters they are non-partisan.
Their target---Stephen Harper.
The main organizer of the Vote Mob is Yvonne Su. She's a University of Guelph student who describes herself as an activist. She attended the Copenhagen Summit where she thrilled at the clashes between protestors and police.
"I felt so much power in the people and so much oppression executed by the police. I was not in the group but I felt their struggle so deep within me. The climate change movement has come up again and again against resistance from established systems of our society and to watch as civil society physically clash with police to fight for a cause that runs so deep within me- was life changing."
Co-organizer Gracen Johnson is closely associated with the Green Party.
"It's been a dynamic and monumental year in terms of global mobilization around the energy-climate-crisis. This weekend is a chance to recharge and once again call all hands on deck." -- Gracen Johnson
You're handling security for Stephen Harper. Some of the Vote Mob, including Izzy Hirji, have a pass to attend.
Do you take the chance that the people responsible for the Strip Mob will do something to disrupt the Harper rally? Have they progressed from taking off their clothes to stronger tactics ala the riots of Copenhagen that so inspired them?
Izzy Hirji has been involved in an anti-Harper protest where Conservative Party supporters were physically blocked in the streets. Has he advanced his activism to new tactics?
How serious to take his threat to "go to Ottawa myself an take him down...", "lol" notwithstanding?
The decision was taken to dis-invite Izzy and his companions from the the rally. Politely.
CBC's anti-Harper attack dog Terry Milewski and his parliamentary press gallery colleagues seized the exclusion of Vote Mob participants as a "controversy" they could use to undermine Stephen Harper.
Not a word about the Strip Mob, the Green Party, or the Copenhagen riots that so energized the organizers. Instead it was how controlling the Harper campaign is and how aggrieved the students were.
Of course, CBC, CP, and the rest of the press gallery did carry the story of Ottawa Liberal candidate Ryan Keon whose campaign signs were defaced by spraypainted crosshairs.
Each story referenced the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and each made a thinly veiled inference that the vandalism was the work of someone supporting the Conservative candidate.